Recommended

Today I visited a new craft emporium. It's mainly sewing-based, but it did have a rather nice selection of buttons, and they do crochet classes, so I think it counts as knitting-related enough for this blog. It was lovely. I think I might want to sew things. (Because I need another hobby that I don't really have time for.) But it got me thinking about recommendations, because I first heard of this place last year when a friend said that she had heard about it and that we should go. (I think we didn't get round to it because at the time it didn't do tea and cake, which are obviously necessary to complete the crafting trifecta.) Then this year a very lovely colleague of mine did a dressmaking course there and was waxing lyrical about how good it was, and they now have a tearoom, so off I went. With my mum, who is also skilled in the ways of buying pretty, crafty things she doesn't need or have space for. (Nature or nurture?) So how many recommendations does it take to get someone to act on the recommendation? Generally, if you recommend something once I'll file it under "interesting" and think no more of it, until someone else recommends it, even a significant amount of time later, when I will literally think twice about doing it. (Or I'll file it until such time as I need whatever it is you've recommended, but everyone knows that craft shops are a constant need.)

Case in point, a while ago a book called The Gracekeepers was recommended on the radio. It sounded like something I'd enjoy, so I filed it under "interesting" and then thought no more of it. Until it was mentioned in an episode of the Books on the Nightstand podcast (another double recommendation), at which point I thought "Yes, I thought that was interesting before. Must read." (Books are a constant need too.) So now it's on my TBR list. (Still currently on the mental list rather than the physical pile, but it's just a matter of time.)

So if everyone is like me and needs two of them, how do recommendations get started? Well, like this I suppose. Round the corner from the lovely craft emporium, I happened to have parked my car outside a little yarn shop. And obviously we had to go in, because... well, I don't need to explain this to you by now. Pretty, crafty things. And it turned out to be one of the best yarn shops I've ever been in, with lots and lots of extremely pretty, crafty things. Let the chain of recommendations begin.